Santa Maria da Feira, 19/06/2000 (Agence Europe) - The President of the European Parliament, Niicole Fontaine, said on Monday to the press that she was "very shocked" and "upset" by the Dover tragedy (in which 58 People lost their life on Sunday when trying to emigrate illegally into the EU). Mrs. Fontaine reminded that the EU is working so as to try and prevent that "these trafficking of people can take place in such a abhorrent manner," and asserted that this tragedy underlines the need to "bridge the gap being increasingly dug between the rich and poor."
The European Commission spokesperson, Jonathan Faull, indicated that the European Commissioner Antonio Vitorino raised the Dover accident the previous day, during the Lisbon Conference on asylum and immigration, and recalled that, at the Tampere summit, the European Commission asserted the need to tackle these issues at a European level, intergovernmental if necessary and at a Community level where the EU has the appropriate powers. The spokesperson also recalled that the European Commission will present Communications by the end of the year on asylum and immigration policies and on entry into Member State territory, and that it is continuing its work on the fight against "crime networks" in the trade in human beings.